Archeology

A fossil jawbone, rudimentary tools and animal skeletons from a cave in Spain extend the earliest occupation of Europe by human ancestors back to as much as 1.3 million years ago, half a million years earlier than previously believed, researchers reported Wednesday. The findings suggest that early hominids swept out of Africa, through the Near East and into Europe much more rapidly than previously believed, said Spanish researchers who reported the find in the journal Nature.

Several Native American tribes are lamenting the damage to sacred land and archeological sites caused by the largest fire in New Mexico state history. The Las Conchas fire has charred about 13,000 acres within the Santa Clara Canyon, an area of great significance to those who live in Santa Clara Pueblo, a Native American community north of Santa Fe. "This is a fire like we've never seen before," said Santa Carla Pueblo Gov. Walter Dasheno. The burned area accounts for nearly 25% of the reservation's 55,000 acres, and the blaze is expected to consume more land in the coming days.

The mysterious circle of stones that rises on Salisbury Plain near here has stood as an archaeological marvel for thousands of years, its origins and purpose shrouded in the mists of history. But a just-completed excavation of Stonehenge, the first within the ancient circle in more than 40 years, could provide some of the first reliable explanations for one of the greatest wonders of the prehistoric world. A team of British archaeologists hopes to prove its theory that nearly 4,000 years ago Stonehenge was regarded not as a place of sacrament for the dead, but as a temple with healing powers.

Thousands of Arizona residents fled a voracious wildfire Wednesday that has devoured a stretch of sparsely populated pinelands the size of Phoenix and shows no sign of stopping. The Wallow fire, which began May 29, has blackened nearly 389,000 acres, making it the second-largest blaze in state history. It seemed poised to surpass the record-holder from 2002: Because of high winds and bone-dry terrain, the fire was 0% contained, meaning firefighters had not even begun to hem it in, much less get it under control.

A key consultant among several archeologists who served as advisors on Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" said he is disappointed that the film overlooks many of the Mayas' cultural and scientific achievements and portrays the people as "bloodthirsty savages." As a chase movie, "Apocalypto" is top-notch, said Richard D. Hansen, a professor of anthropology at Idaho State University who has written extensively about the Mayas. The sets, makeup and costumes are also "accurate to the nth degree," he noted.

Nicolas Jarquin was cutting trees in preparation for constructing a warehouse on the property of a Nicaraguan agricultural company when he noticed several large mounds exposed by the activity, some with building foundations on their surface. Before disturbing the site, he called in Spanish and Nicaraguan archeologists working at the nearby prehistoric village of Karoline to have a look.

Like creatures of the ark, Saddlerock Ranch's animals are here in pairs: llamas, emus, macaws, peacocks, camels and zebras. But these California immigrants are commonplace compared to the pictographs tucked amid the ranch's towering rock formations and grapevine-studded hills. Archeologists say the drawings were made by Chumash Indians, the original settlers of the area, to depict a pivotal event in California history: Their encounter with Spanish explorers more than 200 years ago.

What would people be able to figure out about you if they were to enter your home a thousand years from now? Archeologists study what is left behind and try to determine its meaning, whether it's a piece of pottery, a dinosaur bone or an underwater shipwreck. Learn more about the techniques and discoveries of archeology through the direct links on the Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.latimes.com/launchpoint Here are the best sites for getting your schoolwork done or for just having fun.

Georgette Mutafyan, a seventh-grader at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, explained in a presentation Thursday the kinds of things that can be found at an archeological dig. "Fossils and artifacts," she told a group of about 40 classmates and teachers. "Fossils are hardened remains of animals and plants that lived long ago, and artifacts are man-made."

Inside a 60-foot trailer decorated to resemble a typical Southern California canyon, Liz Lamarre, 12, plunged her plastic trowel into a small plot of earth and began looking for historic artifacts. After rooting around unsuccessfully for a few moments, she cried out, "Oh, I did find something!" and pulled out an abalone shell. Liz was one of about 30 students at Frank N.

Despite the environmental community's pleas to "save it, don't pave it," the Huntington Beach City Council has approved plans to convert a former 5-acre archeological site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands into the city's first "green" housing development. "I'm sure every community has its cross to bear, and Bolsa Chica has been Huntington's for a long time," said Councilman Don Hansen, who voted to approve the project. "I find all the findings that were presented tonight adequate." But environmentalists who packed Tuesday's meeting raised concerns about building a 22-home development so close to the wetlands and argued that the area is of great ecological and historical importance.

Underwater archaeologists said Monday that they have found a virtual time capsule of life during Canada's Klondike Gold Rush: a sunken Yukon River stern-wheeler so well-preserved that researchers can document the last minutes of the five-man crew as well as their life aboard the primitive cargo-hauler. The door of the steam boiler on the A.J. Goddard was open, and slightly charred wood found inside suggested the crew was trying to build up a head of steam, perhaps to break loose from an ice jam. An ax remained on the deck after one crew member hefted it to chop the rope used to tow a barge, a sign of their frantic attempts to escape the ice floe.

The Nazca people of Peru -- famous for their huge line drawings on an arid plateau that are fully visible only from the air -- set the stage for their demise by deforesting the plain, allowing a huge El Niño-fueled flood to ravage the Ica Valley about AD 500, researchers have found. "They died out because they destroyed their natural ecosystem," said archaeologist Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, coauthor of a paper in the current issue of Latin American Antiquity.

Benito Mussolini, who ruled Fascist Italy from 1922 to 1943, had ambitious plans for the nation's capital. In the historic center he sought to uncover the remains of Imperial Rome, on which he modeled his new Italian empire, opening massive archaeological works and at the same time destroying many of the city's medieval landmarks. Outside the center Il Duce ordered the construction of whole districts in a new architectural vernacular that melded Roman classicism with stream-lined modernism.

British archaeologists have found the remains of a massive stone henge, or ceremonial circle, that was part of the ancient and celebrated Stonehenge complex, a find that is shedding new light on how the monument was built and its religious uses. The new henge, called Bluestonehenge because it was built with blue Preseli dolerite mined more than 150 miles away in Wales, was on the banks of the River Avon, where ancient pilgrims carrying the ashes of their dead relatives began the journey from the river to Stonehenge, nearly two miles away.

A treasure trove of 4.4-million-year-old fossils from the Ethiopian desert is dramatically overturning widely held ideas about the early evolution of humans and how they came to walk upright, even as it paints a remarkably detailed picture of early life in Africa, researchers reported Thursday. The centerpiece of the diverse collection of primate, animal and plant fossils is the near-complete skeleton of a human ancestor that demonstrates our earliest forebears looked nothing like a chimpanzee or other large primate, as is now commonly believed.

American archeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic-era tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced. The tomb's spare appearance suggests it was not dug for a pharaoh, said U.S. archeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the University of Memphis team's find but has seen photographs of the site. "It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official," he said Thursday.

Archeologists have found a large cache of early 17th century armor deep in a well in historic Jamestown, Va., a hint as to the military readiness of the New World's first permanent English settlement. The pieces, found about 10 feet below the surface, include body armor and possibly breast plates, back plates and helmets. "Most archeologists will go their whole lives and not find a single piece of armor," archeologist Eric Deetz said as each new piece emerged from the narrow, brick-lined shaft.

Global warming is not necessarily always bad. A 400-year warm spell in South America fueled the Incas' rise, British archaeologists reported Monday, helping them build the largest empire that ever ruled the continent.

On the heavily wooded grounds of a Texas power plant, archaeologists have found the spot where Mexican troops under the command of Col. Juan Almonte surrendered to Sam Houston's force of Texas irregulars along the San Jacinto River, ending Texas' war of secession. The 1836 surrender "resulted in the loss of all Mexican territory west to California," said archaeologist Roger Moore of Moore Archaeological Consulting in Houston, who led the team that found the site.